The automotive industry continues to strive for enhanced fuel efficiency in automotive vehicles, particularly automobiles, which has led to lighter vehicles or a drive to take intrinsic weight out of the vehicles. In an effort to accomplish this weight reduction, engine blocks have been made out of aluminum alloy, and oil pans have been made out of a composite polymeric material. The typical manner in which such composite oil pans are secured to the engine block involves a multitude of bolts that pass through molded-in holes in the pan and are bolted to corresponding tapped holes in the block. However, due to the different rates of thermal expansion between the metal of the block and the polymeric composite of the pan, lateral slippage between the pan and the block occurring during thermal cycling events remains a design challenge even with the use of a seal between the pan and the block.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a containment assembly for flowable materials, and more particularly a leak free containment assembly involving a composite oil pan assembled to an engine block, that overcomes the above noted lateral slippage challenges.